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Port Costa bike ride planned for Sunday 3/1, details to come.

[edit: cancelled due to rain, but to happen some time this spring] This Sunday, 10:30, Pleasent Hill BART. About a 35-mile round trip, moderate hills, to Martinez, Port Costa, and maybe the John Muir house. Postponed to another week if weather is bad– check in with me . Some notes from Short Bike Rides San Francisco: “This mellow, mosey-along kind of ride offers highly scenic views of Mt. Diablo and the Easy Bay Hills as well as of the Carquinez Straits and the tiny and ancient hamlet of Port Costa. I don’t know which is the bigger treat: riding the eroded and unrepaired Carquinez Scenic Road, which is closed to cars, or shooting the bull with the locals at the Warehouse, an immense, historic bar [side note: has 200+ beers] in Port Costa right out of a country-music video. Then, of course, there’s the John Muir House to be visited, charming downtown Martinez to peruse, and the uncrowded multiuse paths of Contra Costa Country to check out.” And a few other excerpts: “You’ll find yourself climbing through a beautiful and very Spanish-looking old graveyard”, “postcard views of Carquinez Straits […] Forty percent of the land area of California drains its runoff water through these straits.”

(near the beach, good espresso and nearly-inch-thick toast slathered with butter and cinnamon sugar, courtesy of Trouble Coffee)

It was a nice 8-person ride today to Ocean Beach, where it was sunny, clear, and play-frisbee-in-t-shirts weather. Crazy. About 15-20 miles round trip depending where people started and ended, see a sample route

Everything is weather-dependent, but I’m up for trying to do this about twice a month. My tentative plans for upcoming rides: This Sunday, Feb 1: the classic ride to golden gate park and ocean beach, via the wiggle. Lunch on the beach. With a stop at Trouble Coffee?

Here’s an approximate map of yesterday’s ride (including my route back), suggesting the total ride was probably 25-30 miles depending where you started and ended. I think we left the Ferry Building at 11 and got back to SF around 4, with lunch and some walking around in Sausalito in the middle. That was fun! Maybe next time we can plan out a post-ride place to grab some foor/beer ahead of time.

Seven of us on the ride today, here’s a photo from a stop in Sausalito. Overall ride about 20-25 miles, depending on route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2704771

I’m going to organize some periodic (1-2 a month) bike rides with friends in the Bay Area for fun. Some will be very low-traffic and flat, some will be more challenging. Possible rides include: Sections of the Iron Horse trails in the East Bay (BART-accessible): off-road, paved, smooth, railroad-to-bike/jogging-trail conversions, flexible distance (pick a direction on the trails, bike, turn around whenever). A good set of starter rides. Sections of the Bay Trail– I haven’t done much here, but you can bike from Millbrae (BART/Caltrain) for miles and miles South right along the bay, mainly on a dedicated paved path. Maybe the first ride is Millbrae->Foster City->Belmont with a picnic stop. The classic bicycling to Ocean Beach via Golden Gate Park, “the wiggle” through the Haight, and so on. Maybe with a stop at Trouble Coffee in the outer sunset for cinnamon toast & coconut, or the Riptide for a beer, depending on the time of day. Biking to Golden Gate Park via the wiggle, but then back via Portola / Twin Peaks Biking all around the Presidio. Biking along the Embarcadero, across the golden gate bridge, to Sausalito (or maybe Tiburon), and back either by bike or on the ferry Other more ambitious rides and suggestions by people: (periodically edited as I get more suggestions) ...